Improvement in match-safes



J. S. HENRY.

Match-Safes. No.149,7`54. A l PatentedApru14,1a74.

. thesame.

UNITED` STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN S. HENRY, OF MANHEIM, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OFv ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO DAVID B. HAOKMAN, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN MATCH-SAFES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 149,754, dated April 14, 1874; application filed l January 27, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN S. HENRY, of the borough of Manheim, in the county of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Match- `Safes, of which the.` following is a speciiication:

f that a brief description will enable any one skillled in the art to make and use the same, in which.

Figure lis a perspective view of the safe. Fig. 2,is a sectional view, to show the plan and internal construction.

Fig. 1 shows the back A, made of a solid piece, say, ten inches long. B shows an enlargement by a piece connected above to A, and of about equal thickness, say, two and one-half inches deep and one and threefourths inch belowT the top for suspending This forms a head or hopper, H, Fig. 2, by boxing out the inner face of A and B, and closing the two sides with the side pieces B.

below, on each side of the hoppersufciently apart to form a slotV for the sliding piece O, to slide up and down between them, A and B. This sliding piece O has an open slot, F, for a guide or headed pin', Gr, fixed centrally in the front face of A, (below the head or hopper B,) and on which the slide O is actuated in its up and down movement by means of the knob E. The upper edge of this slide 'has a horizontal groove, for the purpose of receiving and holding a single match, D, and to enable the thumb and y linger to grasp the match more readily a Mrounded notch -is made centrally in the upper edge of said slide. The outer face of the head portion is made ornamental, with an intermediate space for a strip of sandpaper.,` I, on which to ignite the match. The upper edge b', in front of the slide, is

About one-fourthV of an -inch in thickness is leftA square above and also hollowed out to form a kind of tray to receive the match should it be jerked off from its groove by a too hasty motion. b below is simply ornamental.

The operation is simple. When the slide is drawn down to its full extent, as shown in Fig. 2, the upper grooved edge of the same just fills the open space left for it between the pieces A and B, or base of the hopper H, with its inclined sides made to match. Thus, a single match will lodge in the groove of the slide, iilling it so asv to prevent others from lodging when being pushed up and out through the upper open space between said A and B, or top of the hopper, boxed out as shown, and present the match D above it, as shown in Fig. l 5 also, by dotted lines in Fig. 2. Thus, upon repeating the motion of the slide to its full extent, match after -match will be delivered until the hopper is empty.

The hopper is easily supplied with matches through the open slot above when the slide is down, and when the slide is up it closes the upper slot, so that4 it will prevent matches from falling out; and, altogether, it forms a neat, simple, and desirable match safe. `I show a coiled spring under the headed guide-pin G, to keep up a gentle pressure upon the slide.

I am not aware that a match-safe was ever heretofore known or used substantially constructedand operated in the manner shown and specified.

Therefore, what I claim as my invention, and desire to secure, is

In a match-safe the combination of a matchreceptacle, whose top has a central slot, and' whose bottom has a corresponding central slot, formed by and between two surfaces sloping or curving from opposite sides oi' the receptacle downward toward each other, with a slide moving vertically in the slots and grooved on its upper end, as and for the purpose described.

JO. S. HENRY.

y Witnesses BENJ. D. DANNER, F. B. BRosEY. 

